Hill Holliday and SWEETHEARTS® Celebrate 150 Years of Conversation Hearts

Hill Holliday is working with the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) and the SWEETHEARTS® Brand to proudly support the 150th anniversary of conversation hearts in a big way. The multi-channel campaign includes interactive, a unique video and a contest to promote Sweethearts®, a Valentines Day staple since 1866.

Hill Holliday, NECCO’s AOR and creator of the campaign, searched far and wide for the most romantic and compelling Valentine’s Day stories -- and selected just one for a short film celebrating what love means.

Jack Evans, 85, and George Harris, 82, met in 1961, and in 2016 they will spend their 55th Valentines Day together. What’s different about 2016? It’s the first time in their long lives they will be able to celebrate Valentine’s Day as a legally married couple. They were married on June 26, 2015 in Dallas; the very first of 170 same sex couples married in Dallas County.

A video detailing Jack and George's touching story will be hosted on the campaign microsite, https://shareyoursweetstory.com/ shared across NECCO social channels, and supported by paid media on select social channels.

For 150 years, the SWEETHEARTS® Brand has been putting words of kindness, friendship, sweetness and love into mouths across the world -- and now it’s everyone’s turn to share a sweet story.

"Sweethearts Candies turning 150 is a big deal,” said Rick McHugh, Creative Director at Hill Holliday. But then we realized that not only is Valentine’s Day ‘16 Sweethearts Candies’ 150th, it’s also the first Valentine’s Day in history that ALL married couples can truly celebrate. Talk about the stars aligning."

Enter to win at www.shareyoursweetstory.com, a microsite inviting Sweethearts fans to share your favorite sweet stories in 150 words or less. The winner (chosen by NECCO) takes home $5,000 with additional cash prizes awarded to other top entries. The contest runs through midnight on Valentines’ Day but a few unique stories are already on the site to start things off.